The light was dimmed, he sat down to smoke a cigarette. He was thinking about the chat he had earlier on with that strange woman. She was a fascinating creature yet slightly frightening. They had been chatting for several weeks now and he would love to meet her in real life. Unfortunately this was something he could only dream about, at night on his pillow, or even during the day. Thoughts about her had developed the habit of popping up regularly lately. He thought about her and indulged in fantasies.

Now he wouldn’t talk to her for three days. She would be absent. Had things to do. Places to go. He missed their conversations already. When he told her so, she said he shouldn’t act like a little drama queen. She said otherwise she wouldn’t want to talk to him on her return. The thought of that made his entire being ache. Fortunately she had accepted his elaborate apologies.

He tried to look at the bright side. She had been as kind as to give him some tasks to perform. His intention was to make her proud of him. He hoped he would be able to live up to her expectations. The tasks were rather simple. But he knew it was of the uttermost importance he fulfilled them to her satisfaction. She had made it very clear she wouldn’t bear talking to him anymore in case he failed.

And as a reward, if he did well, he would be allowed to talk to her over the phone. The thought of her sweet voice made his knees tremble. No doubt her voice could be harsh when displeased but he just knew she would have an angelic voice. She was like a Goddess. Everything was perfect about her. He couldn’t imagine a woman more beautiful, more intelligent, more witty, more just, more …

Oohwww, to be her servant, the chosen one to please her in everything she would desire. To be the one to clean her house, wash her clothes, shine her shoes or comb her hair. The lucky one to be corrected when making mistakes. To feel her eyes follow him around. To watch his every move. To know her guidance and tenderness, to hear the sound of being spanked or whipped for being ignorant and stubborn.

He already was absolutely sure that would be the ultimate honour and he was prepared to do anything in order to achieve that utter bliss. He knew the road was long and certainly would be bumpy but happily and slightly impatiently he started his first task to perform. He would be a good boy and she would be proud …

You get 5 words and with these 5 words you have to write an entry. The words might or might not be related. You decide how to combine them, and how long your entry will be. You tag your entry with 5wordchallenge and whatever other tags you like. Finally, you put the words in bold. This week's challenge: light, smoke, pillow, whipped, chat. In one week the challenge will be passed on to someone who participated in this one, hosted by me.

Kurt Vonnegut

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

ficlets are shorter than short stories. Well, no, actually, they are short stories, but they’re really short stories. Really short, as in there’s not a maximum word count … there’s actually a maximum character count (1,024).

A ficlet is a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world.

Once you’ve written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you’ll never guess where (or even if!) it ends.

About Ficlets

Ficlets are shorter than short stories. Well, no, actually, they are short stories, but they’re really short stories. Really short, as in there’s not a maximum word count … there’s actually a maximum character count (1,024). There is also a minimum character count, and the number of that beast is 64.

If you wish, we’ll provide you with inspiration (photos, themes, suggested beginnings and endings, even other ficlets), but you’re completely free to blaze your own trail. Now, here’s where the real fun comes in: Each and every ficlet is modular in that, though you may have written a stand-alone story with a beginning, middle, and ending, your fellow ficleteers may choose to write a prequel or sequel to your story. In this respect, you can think of ficlets as literary Legos.

All ficlets are covered under Creative Commons, which means that if you wrote it, you own it. Period.

To give you an idea of what you can do with 1,024 characters, that is the exact length of this “About Ficlets” description.